Building an Interent Strategy

Your first Internet Strategy
Most folks think that an Internet strategy is solved by simply having a web site. You know, build it and they will come. Well even if they do come what will they do when they get there and what will your company get out of it. Even very good websites that are well laid out and look great can fail without first setting goals.

Setting your goals for your web strategy
We’re going to assume that you have a website. It may even be a very good one. Where most companies fall short is in setting objectives for their sites. Even non-ecommerce sites must have clear objectives and goals with assigned values. Deciding on and assigning a value to these goals is a critical first step.

Using analytics on your website
Like everything else in business you can’t manage what you can’t measure. With free services like Google Analytics it is easier than ever to track your web site metrics. The key is deciding on what to track.

Visits vs. Goals
Most companies, even very large companies never get beyond tracking visitors, site visits or page views to their websites. While these metrics are certainly important we must realize that a page view is not a page view. Some pages and actions on your website are worth more than others.

Assigning a monetary value to both ecommerce and non commerce site actions
Why is it important to assign dollar values to actions and visits to my web site if I don’t sell anything on the site? The first reason is that unless there is a perceived value to what your website does for your company, no one in the company will ever take it seriously. It will be the nice brochureware or product catalog that is taken for granted. Worse yet, it will become a COST CENTER.

Next- What should my Internet strategy measure and how do I assign value to it